Team leads: Melanie Cohn and Mary Pat McAndrews

The hippocampus, cholinergic basal forebrain, and related brain networks are critical to episodic memory and other cognitive functions, but their specific roles remain to be elucidated. We consider the soundest evidence to reflect convergence of patient or lesion studies and neuroimaging studies in young and older healthy individuals. 

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​Recent and ongoing projects:  

• Demonstrating that the different contributions of anterior and posterior hippocampus to memory depend on tasks, hemispheres, and connectivity patterns. 

• Investigating the involvement of the hippocampal network in other aspects of cognition, such as social cognition and pain perception. 

• Investigating whether hippocampal hyperexcitability represents a biomarker and potential therapeutic target in individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease. 

• Disentangling hippocampal and frontal contribution to episodic memory.  

• Examining how the cholinergic basal forebrain contributes to age-related changes in episodic memory processes (e.g., pattern separation and completion).